±«Óãtv

It's 8am on the third day of my first Royal Welsh Show and I'm just about getting a handle on this enormous place. Having successfully avoided condiment-based accidents at breakfast, I drive in across the upper moorlands between Brecon and Builth Wells, accompanied by a lone red kite and a train of Sunday drivers behind a horsebox.

Such are the perils of country roads on the way to the show.

Things are surprisingly easy once I'm parked up: don the wellies, check I've got my camera, the sound recorder and my essential bottle of coke for the morning caffeine hit. I walk along a corrugated temporary road/path, taking care to avoid being splattered with liquid mud by any 4x4s and get my card marked at the entrance.

Then it's a series of dog-legs, past the goat, sheep and pig sheds, right past the enormous food hall, left at M&S and another right at the cattle ring to bring me to the ±«Óãtv building opposite the enormous main show ring.

Here's a picture of the ring just to give you an indication of the scale of this place:

Royal Welsh Show main ring

There's an awful lot of walking to do on the site. A little like a music festival, it seems to take forever to get anywhere (however, no felt festival hats are to be seen; it's all about the bowler, the deerstalker and the flat cap here).

Sensible shoes are a must; given this week's forecast of sunshine and showers, I took the wellies option and they've seen me right so far. With Derek Brockway forecasting some heavy showers this afternoon, I shan't be changing into my flip flops just yet.

Today is meant to be the most popular of the four days, according to the ±«Óãtv Mid Wales news producer Carl, all down to that fact it's day. Over 60,000 people will be pouring into the site, a lot of them to view the cob varieties which have been used as working horses for centuries.

I'll be taking some pictures of some of them, no doubt. I might also be taking a picture of the who's guest of honour today. He might even be visiting the ±«Óãtv hovel at some point too. We're expecting just the show president, but I'll polish my eyebrow ring in preparation just in case.